New Words
New words are always being created. One that I really have been hearing is “on fleek” meaning looking good or on point. Supposedly it was started by Kim Kardashian when talking about her eye brows. They were on fleek.
Time magazine’s May 23 issue had an interesting article on this subject. Editors who develop dictionaries have had fun keeping up. Many of these new words don’t get the attention they maybe should. In other words, some words are like the Wikipedia–they are not accepted nor approved by dictionary compilers called lexicographers
A couple of the words given by Time were “senpal” meaning an older mentor and “baeless” meaning single without a mate.
Every now and then I have to refer to a dictionary. I have an American Heritage dictionary with pictures and sketches down the margins. I recently referred to it and realized that once many years ago this dictionary was not accepted by the Webster people. I received it as a gift. It weighs about four pounds. I used to love to go to an old library where a huge dictionary stood on a stand and appeared to contain millions of words.
Today there are several types of dictionaries that are not recognized by the “word powers.” One is the Wordnik dictionary, BabelNet is another. Yet another is Green’s Dictionary of Slang –contains 130,000 words compiled by Jonathan Green (not a relative of mine). Do feel free to create your own word for this or that.
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